Court says Cornelius gas tax repeal vote can wait until 2012

The battle goes on — this time at the Washington County Circuit Court level.

On Monday, Aug. 30, Washington County Circuit Court Judge Charles Bailey ruled the City of Cornelius can wait until November 2012 to place the gas tax and streetlighting fee repeal initiatives on the ballot.

Bailey agreed with Cornelius City Attorney Paul Elsner that the council has the discretion on when to place the initiatives on the ballot.

On Aug. 16, Cornelius city councilors met in special session to consider the two initiative petitions — one to repeal the 2-cent per gallon gas tax and one to repeal the $2.25 per month street lighting fee. The council decided to refer the initiatives to voters and decided that since the petitions were certified fewer than 90 days before the fall election, the soonest they could be placed on a ballot is November 2012.

Paul Romain, representing the chief initiative petitioners, argued that the city was misreading its own code and that the initiatives met the deadline to be placed on the November 2010 ballot.

He quickly filed paperwork with the Washington County Circuit Court and Judge Thomas Kohl issued a directive to the city Aug. 19 to place the initiatives on the fall ballot. Bailey’s decision on Monday reverses that.

At this point, the city is not required to ready the initiatives for the fall ballot. The city continues to collect the gas tax and has collected about $23,000 so far from the seven stations in town. Once the city collects $100,000, the street lighting fee will be discontinued.

The question of whether the gas tax is legal will be heard by the Oregon Court of Appeals sometime in the spring.